Levi Leipheimer did well to wear the yellow jersey going into Sunday’s final day of the USA Pro Challenge. He didn’t get a lot of help. His Belgium-based Omega Pharma-QuickStep team brought only six riders and one didn’t make it to Denver.

Leipheimer rode conservatively the entire week, riding the wheels of BMC Racing Team and Team Garmin-Sharp. That was until Saturday’s final climb up Boulder’s Flagstaff Mountain when he left the other leaders in the dust.

He couldn’t hold the lead in Sunday’s time trial and you wonder how much of a lead he would’ve had to protect if he had more of a team around him in the mountains. To his credit and class, Leipheimer didn’t throw his young teammates under the bus.

“It was a difficult time for our team because it’s a Belgian team,” Leipheimer said. “You’ve got Enoco (Tour), Hamburg, (Tour of ) Denmark, the Vuelta (a Espana), the (GP Ouest Fance-) Plouay all going on at the same time. We actually have four teams racing today. And we’re just stretched thin. It was actually touch and go whether they could even make it happen or not. And they did. They kind of stretched themselves. We have some temporary staff here. We have the minimum amount of riders.

“It definitely affected our tactics but the race was built for the weekend and it was up to me on the final climb (Saturday) and it was up to me (Sunday). Thankfully we didn’t have to control too much. We did a little in the beginning. But I’m not going to blame the team. I just didn’t go fast enough (Sunday). I had the yellow jersey. I had the advantage on these guys. And the fact that my team wasn’t as strong as their teams — which is obvious and there’s no reason not to acknowledge that — had nothing to do with why I didn’t repeat.”